Tag Archives: Gay

The front page of the Guernsey Press this morning had a horrific story of how a young girl had her van vandalised with the words “DIE FILTHY QUEER” painted onto the back and her dog attacked in the night with a hammer, to the point that the dog will need to have the eye removed. For those reading this blog outside Guernsey, I’d like to highlight that we don’t see this behaviour often. Violent crime is on the decline and hate crimes (though we don’t currently have legislation designating it as such) are very scarce. The community is rightly shocked. I had time to think about things since this morning and what follows is what I wrote on the internet page of our local newspaper www.thisisguernsey.com. I thought that what I wrote was worth repeating here.

I was shocked when I read this story today. As an openly gay man I’ve lived in Guernsey for about 18 years and have never come across openly aggressive homophobia, passive yes, but never this type.

During the election campaign I remember saying that it was time to bring our laws up to date so that they reflect the tolerant and progressive society Guernsey is. It’s very disheartening when something like this happens that is at variance with that statement.

When I expressed my shock on twitter this morning, someone asked what could be done and I answered honestly that I wasn’t sure and would like to reflect on it.

I’ve spoken to Deputy Le Tocq as the minister of the Home Department and was heartened to hear that our violent crimes are consistently down as a trend, except domestic abuse (and this is a very worrying trend on the island, but I’ve recently written a blog post here http://www.elisbebb.com/blog/domestic-abuse/ about this problem).

I’m also heartened by the public reaction. People are rightly shocked and appalled as to what happened here. Attitudes are changing and incidents like these are simply not tolerated by people. This is a good sign that something has been happening over the last few decades that improves our expectation of each other’s behaviour. I know of people, only about twenty years ago, who were physically attacked for being gay, but the reporting back then was ambiguous and the reaction muted.

I’d like to suggest that the reason so many people are shocked about this incident (and the other two that were on the first three pages of the press today) is because we abhor this behaviour and that it is now so infrequent, we are shocked at its occurrence. The reporting and visibility of these issues are also far more transparent than anything in the past.

Of course we can’t be complacent about these issues, we can’t be until we eradicate violence and bigotry and that’s a very long journey. Education is key to this endeavour, and I don’t mean just in the classrooms, I also mean in the Churches & Pubs, on the street and in the home, in community centres and in the shops, we all need to stand up and reject the idea that hate crimes and violence are an acceptable reaction. We should never allow intolerance of the “other” to become acceptable again in Guernsey.

This is a dreadful incident and the hate crime towards Jenny Harding and the violence towards Alice is inexcusable. Having had time to think further I do believe that we now need to bring forward hate crime legislation (something that we don’t have) and revisit our laws in relation to attacks on animals, something I know is in the process, but where and what priority has it been given? But feel that there may be some other form of reaction possible and I’m interested in discussing any ideas that people may have. I’d be particularly interested in talking to Jenny Harding should she wish to.

Finally, I’d like to say that the reaction here is part of the reason why I’m pleased to call Guernsey home. I chose to live here and I feel that the reasons for living here remain strong for as long as we, as a community, continue to condemn violence, abhor hate crimes and confront it in all its manifestations.